Startups are rushing to try and digitise the mortgage market — now £1.6 billion UK comparison giant Moneysupermarket is getting in on the action

Moneysupermarket is launching a new 50-50 joint
venture, Podium, that aims to digitise the mortgage application
process.

It comes amid a wave of investment into startups
looking to digitise mortgages in Britain.

Moneysupermarket's MD of Money said: "Why we think we
can succeed is we have scale and search traffic."

LONDON - UK financial comparison website Moneysupermarket is
launching a new joint venture aimed at digitising the mortgage
market, which is still a largely phone and paper-based market in
Britain.

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Moneysupermarket, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange's
FTSE 250 index and has a market cap of £1.6 billion, announced on
Thursday that it is setting up a 50-50 joint venture with two
entrepreneurs who built key comparison engines for credit cards
and loans that are used by Moneysupermarket.

"The reality is the way that people take out mortgages is still
unchanged from the mid-80s," Andy Hancock, MD for money and
publishing at Moneysupermarket, told Business Insider. "It's
still quite an analogue market. It's probably one of the last
areas of the market to be digitised."

Moneysupermarket already attracts 16 million visitors a year to
its website for information on mortgages, around 25% of the total
UK search traffic on the topic. But the majority of these
visitors then turn to mortgage brokers who work over the phone.
Customers are also required to provide paper documentation to
support their applications.

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Podium, as the joint venture will be known, intends to digitise
the entire process. If everything goes to plan, customers will be
able to not only compare mortgages based on eligibility but also
be able to apply for them through Moneysupermarket's website.
Moneysupermarket earns a fee for every product sold through its
site as long as the customer does not cancel or switch, which the
company says aligns its interests with customers.

Hancock would not disclose how much Moneysupermarket is investing
in Podium, nor would he disclose a timeline for when we can
expect to see the product. He said: "This is obviously longer
term, it's a complex process. But the current market is pretty
broken and we think we're in a pretty good position to do this."

Moneysupermarket's efforts come amid a wave of investment into
startups looking to digitise part or all of the UK mortgage
market. Other notable businesses in the space include
Habito,
Goldman Sachs-backed Trussle, and
Dynamo.

"It really is the final area no one has been able to digitise,"
Hancock said. "This is one of the most complex and one of the
most significant financial transactions we make in our lives. A
number of fintechs, including obviously ourselves, have
identified this as a key opportunity but the reason why we think
we can succeed is we have scale and search traffic."

He added: "The market is definitely moving this way. And to be
honest the fintechs coming into the market are helping us."

Podium will be run by Matt Denman and Mark Hawkins, the other
partners in the venture. Denman and Hawkins previously helped to
build HD Decisions, a startup that makes financial comparison
tools. It was sold to Experian in 2014, but Moneysupermarket
still owns a stake.

Hancock said Podium is part of Moneysupermarket's long-term
growth plan. He said: "This we see as a key element of growth in
the future."

Moneysupermarket announced the venture alongside its first half
results on Thursday. Group revenue rose 5% to £173.7 million and
post-tax profit rose 5% to £42.5 million.